Somewhere, an Israeli hawk is spanking the monkey to this:

U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama said on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a “grave threat” to the world.

Obama told reporters during a visit to Israel that if elected, he would take “no options off the table” in dealing with the Iran issue and said tougher sanctions could be imposed.

“A nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat and the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Obama told reporters after visiting the Israeli town of Sderot, which lies close to the border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. (emphasis mine)

Sound familiar?  It should…

In a stern warning to Iran, President Bush said “all options are on the table” if the Iranians refuse to comply with international demands to halt their nuclear program, pointedly noting he has already used force to protect U.S. security.

For the few partyarchs who bother to read this site sharpening their pitchforks at this comparison, it’s not like he’s alone in agreement with this.  Your 2nd and 3rd options said the same thing.

Honestly, whenever some winger tries to paint Obama as if he’s an uber-leftist it’s a struggle to not laugh maniacally.

On a serious note, what has happened thanks to the constant drumbeat of war & the psychological footing crammed down our throats is that within “mainstream” politics the center has been dragged right.  Since the “mainstream” right-wing position is essentially that Ahmadinejad is a violent version of the Underpants Gnomes (step 1: build nukes, step 2: ????, step 3: profit!), the quasi-officially sanctioned Middle view is “yeah, they’re nuts, and we might have to destroy them, but let’s talk a little more first”.

As for the view that, since Iran can’t fire a missile and hit the US, and handing off a nuke to a 3rd party would be both too risky and nationally suicidal (Iran would be blasted into glass before lunch the same day, folks), this is a regional matter more than likely neutralized by the fact that Israel has retaliation strike capability out the wazoo?  Oh, that’s just crazy lefty hippie talk.  Never mind that many of the people holding this view aren’t leftists of any stripe.